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Wednesday, 29 July 2015

The Day With Mary came to the parish of Margate a couple of weeks ago. Claudio has now put up on YouTube the sermon that I gave at Mass on the theme of how Our Lady, as our Advocate, assists us at our worship. It is always embarrassing to see your own sermon on video - it reminds me of the sermon classes we had as seminarians. There is much to criticise, but I hope that it might be of some use.

Monday, 27 July 2015

Hardly a weekend passes these days without an article in one of the broadsheets extolling Margate as the place to be for leading-edge short breaks for the culture vulture with a sense of fun. I am beginning to get used to being in a parish where people come to visit; last week was rather special because all of my four sisters came down, together with various children, mostly now young adults whom I have a tendency to assume are all about 14 years old. Their accommodation varied between a good three-storey airbnb, a sea-view hotel and the 15th floor of the brutalist icon Arlington House with fantastic views.

The first evening, Dave opened up The Hoy specially for us after I asked to book a table for 16 people. I do recommend it: fresh food, local vegetables, reasonable price, excellent service, real ale and a view across the harbour. (#LoveMargate)

The following day was blessed with bright sunshine - perfect weather for a visit to Margate's funfair, Dreamland, re-opened recently with its Wayne Hemingway designs and confident retro-chic. The rides are not intended to compete with Alton Towers but rather to offer a slightly tongue-in-cheek trip to yesteryear with enough g-force to make it fun.

There were enough of us to take over all of the dodgem cars for a session, though only a select few went on what is usually called, I think, the wall of death or something - the one where it spins round and the floor drops away but you are pinned to the wall by centrifugal force. At Margate it is called the Barrel of Laughs. The ride hosts were delighted to have a middle-aged "Vicar" on board (I did correct them) and were amused when I suggested afterwards that it had cured my hernia.

If you are visiting Margate, I do warmly recommend Dreamland. The staff are charming, friendly and genuinely concerned that everyone should have a good time. The whole enterprise is good for Margate, both in attracting visitors and in providing much-needed employment.

The visit was also an opportunity for me to get to the Shell Grotto for the first time. I loved the old advertising poster which says that it is "declared by all the leading Journals to be a very great Curiosity" and that "It is considered the Lion of Margate, one of the World's Wonders, and the most extensive piece of Shell Work in Europe."

There is quite a bit of work going on to restore and clean the Shell Grotto, partly necessitated by its having been "splendidly lighted with gas."

A visit to Margate is not complete without seeing what Turner called "the lovelies skies in all Europe" at sunset. Here is a photo from after dinner at Botany Bay:

Friday, 24 July 2015

Archbishop Gänswein is probably resigned to the fact that he will be forever known as Pope Benedict's secretary, but he is not shy of teaching in his own right. In an interview with Zenit, he referred to the teaching of St John Paul twenty years ago, in which he did not accept that the divorced and remarried could receive Holy Communion. (See Vatican InsiderGänswein:“Host for remarried divorcees is not possible")

In the present discussion, it is worth referring to the 1994 letter Annus Internationalis Familiae, written by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to the Bishops on the subject. Section 6 states:

Members of the faithful who live together as husband and wife with persons other than their legitimate spouses may not receive Holy Communion. Should they judge it possible to do so, pastors and confessors, given the gravity of the matter and the spiritual good of these persons as well as the common good of the Church, have the serious duty to admonish them that such a judgement of conscience openly contradicts the Church's teaching. Pastors in their teaching must also remind the faithful entrusted to their care of this doctrine.

Archbishop Gänswein also addressed the question of why some pastors contradict this teaching:

“Why do some pastors want to propose what’s not possible?” Mgr. Gänswein asked himself. “I don’t know. Perhaps they give in to the spirit of the time; perhaps they allow themselves to be guided by the human applause caused by the media ... To be critical against the mass media is certainly less pleasing, but a pastor must not decide on the basis of applause or even less of the media. The measure is the Gospel, the faith, healthy doctrine, Tradition.”

Thursday, 23 July 2015

The Day With Mary in my parish coincided with the priestly Ordination of Fr Mark Higgins and Fr Matt O'Gorman at St George's Cathedral in Southwark. I had to give the parish priority and so was disappointed to miss the ordination, especially since I have known both of these new priests well since some time before they began their formation. I am delighted that they are now part of the brotherhood of the clergy in the Archdiocese of Southwark.

In fact, both of them, as well as Fr James Cadman who was ordained a few weeks ago, are old boys of The John Fisher School in Purley. I am a very-much-older boy of the same school. In my day, Fr Roger Nesbitt started up and ran the Faith Society from which the Faith Movement was formed. Although not all of the many priestly vocations from the school since that time were directly influenced by Faith, many of them were.

When the then Archbishop moved Fr Nesbitt into parish ministry in the mid 1980s (just before my own ordination) it seemed as though perhaps the Faith Society would gradually wind down. Thanks to Sir Dan of the Blogosphere, it has continued for another 30 years - and has continued to foster vocations.

The school is called "The John Fisher School" because it was founded shortly before the canonisation in 1935. Sir Dan does a great job of instructing the boys in the virtues of their patron saint. both he and I are enthusiasts of the school hymn which summarises those virtues admirably. May his prayers assist these fine new priests in their apostolate.

From the dawn of human history, mankind has understood the value of a lifelong, faithful, procreative union of one man and one woman in marriage. This natural bond, which was raised to a Sacrament by Our Lord Jesus Christ, has been the foundation of Christian civilisation for over two thousand years.

This powerful film presents the enduring Catholic vision and understanding of marriage and the natural law, the beauty and meaning of human sexuality, of family, of the gift of children, and addresses the challenges we face in our world today.

The DVD "Marriage. God's Design for Life and Love" is suitable for teaching in various contexts such as marriage preparation, convert instruction, and parish adult education. It is rationally structured in three parts with subsections. I have copied these from the scene selection page to give you an idea of the way the contents are ordered:

Wednesday, 1 April 2015

The Catholic students of St Andrews University recently made a pilgrimage to Rome, led by their chaplain, Fr Michael John Galbraith, a hard-working and devout young priest whom I have the privilege to know personally. Over the years I have made many visits to Canmore, the home of the Catholic Chaplaincy, to give talks to the Catholic Society which has remained impressively strong, providing a formative environment for many vocations to priesthood, the religious life, and to Catholic marriages.

While in Rome, the students were given a tour of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith by one of the priest officials there, who is himself an alumnus of St Andrews. He too is a fine young priest (remember that I am getting older!) and works hard at what is sometimes a thankless task in the Curia (not a job I would want for all the tea in China) for the love of God "et pro felici statu sanctae Romanae ecclesiae."

The students were given a private audience with Cardinal Gerhard Müller, the Prefect of the Congregation. At the Facebook page of the Archdiocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh, you can read the full text of his address. Here is just a snippet:

As Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith , my concern is predominantly with the doctrine of the Church and I would encourage you to read and to study the doctrines of the Church. In Chapter 6 of John’s Gospel, after Our Lord’s the discourse on the Bread of Life. St. Peter asks “Lord to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” We must treasure those words of our Lord, that is the intellectual content of our faith. We must be attentive to this dimension of our Faith. And, no doubt, at your University and in your chaplaincy there will be initiatives you can follow to nurture “the doctrine of the Faith.” But we also find implied in those words a sense of actively “going”, to the Lord.

I like the above photo of the Cardinal Prefect of the CDF giving a kindly but serious address to undergraduates from a Scottish University wearing their gowns, but here is also a more informal photo of the students with their chaplain and with His Eminence:

There have been one or two queries. A couple of priests have asked whether they could sign it as they did not have the chance to do so. I understand that the organisers of the letter did try to send a copy to every priest in England and Wales, but a database with such a large number of entries is bound to have a few mistakes. Unfortunately, I am told that there is no easy way to add signatures now. This was a competely independent undertaking of a small number of concerned lay people.

One or two lay people have asked if a letter could be organised for laity to sign. I would recommend lay people to keep in touch with Voice of the Family and to share ideas with them because they are a specifically lay group. Priests and laity each have their own important apostolates

Anybody, priest or lay faithful, who agrees with the priests' letter can help by using their own social media channels to publicise the letter and speak to others about the key points in it.

It is also open to every member of the Christian Faithful (clerics and laity) to manifest their concerns to the Holy See. Here are two possible addresses to write to:

See also the post Further on the priests' Support for Marriage Letter for answers to one or two questions. Here is the text of the Press release from the co-ordinator of the letter, followed by the letter itself and the list of signatories: Press release from the co-ordinator of the letter:

Hundreds of Priests in England and Wales urge Vatican Synod to end confusion over Marriage and Sexuality.

In a dramatic turn of events, nearly 500 priests from England and Wales have written a letter in defence of the ‘traditional teaching on marriage and human sexuality’ in anticipation of the forthcoming Vatican Synod on the family. This letter comes at a time when a growing number of Catholics are concerned that the gathering of Church leaders in Rome, scheduled for October 2015, will seek to re-think Gospel teaching on marriage, sexuality, repentance and grace. Some Cardinals, particularly from Germany, have suggested that Holy Communion could be received by those in second and non-marital unions, or that active homosexual relationships could receive some positive recognition.

Despite the official channels of representation set up by the dioceses of England and Wales, a high proportion of the country’s priests felt the need to make their voices heard by an extra-ordinary open letter, which speaks of a climate ‘of moral confusion’ created by media coverage of the Synod and a lack of clarity from official church leaders in stating the settled teaching of the Catholic Church.

The large number of signatories is surprising since the initiative came from increasingly concerned laity and is not officially supported by any ecclesiastical body. One priest, who asked to remain anonymous, said that there ‘has been a certain amount of pressure not to sign the letter and indeed a degree of intimidation from some senior churchmen’.

Another priest, when asked why such a large number of priests are so keen to sign the letter, said, ‘It’s a matter of pastoral concern and fidelity to the Gospel. Mercy requires both love and truth. There’s a lot at stake. Not all priests would be comfortable expressing themselves in an open letter, but I’d be very worried if there were priests who disagreed with the sentiments it contains’. The letter calls for fidelity to Catholic teaching, and that practice should remain ‘inseparably in harmony’ with doctrine. The priests state that they remain committed to helping ‘those who struggle to follow the Gospel in an increasingly secular society’, but imply that those couples and families who have remained faithful are not being adequately supported or encouraged.

There is a growing suspicion that the Synod will unleash division in the Church by attempting to re-shape Catholic teaching and practice to accommodate modern ways of living and thinking about relationships and sexuality. When asked whether this letter was reactionary or merely extreme traditionalism, one pastor responded, ‘Were Saints Thomas More and John Fisher obscurantist conservatives? No. They gave their lives in defence of the indissolubility of marriage. Catholics at the time of Henry VIII were willing to give up a thousand years of Catholic life and culture to defend the inconvenient but timeless truth. Now is our time to give witness’.

Theologians, philosophers, canon lawyers, well-known educators and evangelists are amongst the priests who have signed this appeal. Their letter urges those who will be pre-sent at the Synod to defend doctrine and put an end to confusion.The letter and full list of signatories:

Sir,

Following the Extraordinary Synod of Bishops in Rome in October 2014 much confusion has arisen concerning Catholic moral teaching. In this situation we wish, as Catholic priests, to re-state our unwavering fidelity to the traditional doctrines regarding marriage and the true meaning of human sexuality, founded on the Word of God and taught by the Church’s Magisterium for two millennia. We commit ourselves anew to the task of presenting this teaching in all its fullness, while reaching out with the Lord’s compassion to those struggling to respond to the demands and challenges of the Gospel in an increasingly secular society. Furthermore we affirm the importance of upholding the Church’s traditional discipline regarding the reception of the sacraments, and that doctrine and practice remain firmly and inseparably in harmony. We urge all those who will participate in the second Synod in October 2015 to make a clear and firm proclamation of the Church’s unchanging moral teaching, so that confusion may be removed, and faith confirmed.

Thursday, 19 March 2015

The pastoral and spiritual care particularly of men in our parishes is much needed at the present time. The Holy League is a recently-founded initiative which aims to to develop a network of parish based regular monthly Holy Hours with confession and fraternity for men.

Cardinal Burke gave an encouraging message earlier this month on the launch of the Holy League. Here is the video:

I did like his ultra simple summary of the one fundamental aim of the Holy League:

"It has basically one thrust and that is that we, as men, be in the state of grace..."

It reminds me of a remark attributed to St John Bosco when asked what was his principal aim in life. The saint who carried out so many spectacularly successful apostolic works said that his principal aim in life was to remain in a state of grace.

(By the way, here is a screen-grab at 3'05" where my good friend Fr Z has a cameo role in the video! I have just noticed that he has also posted on the Holy League today.)

Here is an outline of the aims of the Holy League. They are admirably specific and achievable:

Mission

The Holy League, in a Spirit of Marian Chivalry, under the patronage of Our Lady of Guadalupe and Saint Joseph, seeks to provide opportunities for the faithful to unite in prayer, especially monthly Eucharistic Holy Hours, for purification from sin and predisposition to Supernatural Grace for the fuller exercise of the threefold offices of Priest, Prophet, and King received at Baptism. The particular prayer of the Holy League is the monthly Eucharistic Holy Hour.

The Holy League, in fidelity to its mission as a Roman Catholic solidarity movement:

provides a Holy Hour format which incorporates: Eucharistic adoration, prayer, short spiritual reflections, the availability of the Sacrament of Confession, Benediction and fraternity;

encourages consecration to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and the Purest Heart of Joseph;

promotes the Precepts and Sacraments of the Church; especially through devotion to the Most Blessed Sacrament and the praying of the Most Holy Rosary;

creates a unified front, made up of members of the Church Militant, for spiritual combat;

strives to have a regular monthly Holy League Holy Hour available to men in every Roman Catholic parish.

Thursday, 12 March 2015

Full text of the sermon of Cardinal Burke, given on Monday 9 March at St Augustine's, Ramsgate during the celebration of Pontifical High Mass:

VOTIVE MASS OF SAINT AUGUSTINE, BISHOP, APOSTLE OF ENGLAND
SHRINE OF SAINT AUGUSTINE
THE CATHOLIC CHURCH OF RAMSGATE AND MINSTER
RAMSGATE, ENGLAND
9 MARCH 2015

1 Thes 2, 2-9
Lk 10, 1-9

SERMON

Praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever. Amen.

How great a blessing to offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass at the Shrine of Saint Augustine, Apostle of England, so near to the place at which he, together with some forty other monks, arrived in the year 597 on a mission received from the Roman Pontiff, Pope Gregory the Great: the mission of the new evangelization of the British Isles. Here we witness directly the unfailing activity of the glorious Christ in His Church. Saint Augustine and his companions, not unlike the 72 disciples in the Gospel, were sent forth by the Vicar of Christ on earth to bring Christ alive in the Church to a faraway land. Venerating the tomb of Saint Augustine, we receive the grace of missionary zeal which is most fully and perfectly expressed in the offering of the Holy Mass.

From historical accounts, we know how much Pope Saint Gregory the Great desired to bring the truth and love of Christ to the English nation. He had seen the English youth brought as slaves to Rome, and his heart was filled with compassion for them and for their fellow countrymen. He felt in his heart, the sentiment of the Lord who exhorted the seventy-two disciples for the mission with these words:

The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.(1)

Thus, he called upon the monks of the Roman Monastery of Saint Andrew, from which he had been called to the See of Peter and of which Saint Augustine was the Prior, to undertake the long and difficult journey to England and to preach the Gospel in a place totally unknown to them.(2)

One can imagine that his instructions to Saint Augustine and the other monks were, in substance, the same as those of the Lord to the disciples:

Whenever you enter a town and they receive you, eat what is set before you; heal the sick in it and say to them “The kingdom of God has come near to you.”(3)

Thanks be to God, Saint Augustine and his companions carried out the mission with total obedience. The integrity with which they carried out their priestly labors is well described in the words of Saint Paul in today’s Epistle:

For our appeal does not spring from error or uncleanness, nor is it made with guile; but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please men, but to please God who tests our hearts.(4)

They never doubted that their work was Christ’s, not their own. The measure of their ministry, therefore, was Christ alone, His truth and His love. Thus, their preaching of the Gospel and their ministration of the Sacraments has unceasingly borne fruit for centuries in the British Isles and far beyond.

Dom Prosper Guéranger, in his commentary on the feast of Saint Augustine, reflects upon the enduring fruits of their missionary labors with these words:

Thus the new race that then peopled the island received the faith, as the Britons had previously done from the hands of a Pope; and monks were their teachers in the science of salvation. The word of Augustine and his companions fructified in this privileged soil. It was some time of course before he could provide the whole nation with instruction; but neither Rome nor the Benedictines abandoned the work thus begun. The few remnants that were left of the ancient British Christianity joined the new converts; and England merited to be called, for long ages, the “Island of Saints.”(5)

One thinks, for example, of illustrious figures like the Venerable Bede and Saint Thomas Becket.

Contemplating the saints who were the illustrious fruit of the apostolic ministry of Saint Augustine and his companions, we recall also how many suffered, even to the shedding of their blood, to be true to the apostolic faith handed down to them in an unbroken line from the Apostles and, in particular, from Pope Saint Gregory the Great, heroic Successor of Saint Peter, and Saint Augustine of Canterbury, illustrious successor of the Apostles. In a most particular way, we recall the figures of Saint Thomas More and Saint John Fisher who held fast to the tradition of the faith received from the Vicar of Christ on earth, when so many betrayed and abandoned the apostolic faith. At his trial on July 1, 1535, Saint Thomas More held firmly to the living Tradition of the Church, which forbade him, in conscience, to acknowledge King Henry VIII with the title of Supreme Head of the Church. When, during the trial, the Chancellor rebuked him, citing the acceptance of the title by so many bishops and nobles of the land, Thomas More replied: “My lord, for one bishop of your opinion I have a hundred saints of mine; and for one parliament of yours, and God knows of what kind, I have all the General Councils for 1,000 years, ….”(6) The English Martyrs gave up their lives in martyrdom rather than giving up their greatest and lasting treasure, the life of Christ alive for us in His holy Church. Many others, both canonized saints and unknown heroes of the faith, selflessly and enduringly practiced the Catholic faith brought to the British Isles by Saint Augustine and his companions.

Surely, too, we are conscious of the great challenges in living the apostolic faith in our time. Truly, Satan, “a murderer from the beginning” and “the father of lies”(7), cannot stand the truth and love of Christ shining forth in His holy Church. He never takes repose from his deceitful and hateful labors. He is always trying to corrupt the truth, the beauty and the goodness which Christ never ceases to pour forth into our Christian souls from His glorious pierced Heart. The pervasive confusion and grave error about the most fundamental truths, the most beautiful realities, and the lasting goods of human life and its cradle, the human family, as they come to us from the hand of God, are the tragic signs of Satan’s presence in our midst. When we see how he has succeeded in corrupting a culture which was once Christian and in sowing the seeds of confusion and error even within the Church herself, we can easily become frightened and discouraged.

But, as Saint Augustine and his companions knew and preached, there is another presence which always conquers Satan. It is the presence of Our Lord Jesus Christ in His holy Church and, most perfectly and fully of all, in the Most Blessed Sacrament: His Real Presence. Holding fast to Christ and to His truth and love, even in the face of persecution, the victory over sin, the victory of eternal life will surely be ours. Our Lord Himself, when he placed his Church upon the solid foundation of the Petrine Office, promised us that the forces of evil would not prevail against her.(8) The last chapter of the history of the Church is already written. It is the story of the victory of Christ, when he returns in glory to bring to consummation his saving work, to inaugurate “a new heaven and a new earth.”(9) The intervening chapters are ours to write, with Christ and as His faithful and generous disciples. They will certainly be the story of suffering for the truth and love of Christ, but they will also always be the story of divine grace at work in every Christian soul, filling it with joy and peace even in the face of great suffering and death itself. Let us not give way to fear or discouragement, but let us, with Saint Paul, rejoice to fill out in our time the sufferings of Christ for the glory of God and for the salvation of the world.(10)

Coming on pilgrimage to this shrine, I cannot fail to note the example of the Catholic architect Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin, architect of this beautiful church which is also the place of his burial. Augustus Pugin was attracted to the truth of the Catholic faith through its reflection in the beauty of the great Church architecture of the Middle Ages. He, in turn, sought to express and inspire by his architecture the nobility and beauty of a Christian culture during a time in which the Christian foundations of society were already under serious threat from the radical secularism of the thinking of the so-called Enlightenment. Offering Holy Mass is this church which can rightly be called his, let us thank God for him and for the great treasure of the beauty of the faith which he has given to us.

Christ now makes sacramentally present His Sacrifice on Calvary. Christ now offers to us the great fruit of His Sacrifice, which He first offered to the Apostles at the Last Supper and which Saint Augustine brought to England in 597: the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ Who alone is the Savior of the world. As the glorious Christ descends to the altar of this great sanctuary, let us lift up our hearts to His glorious pierced Heart. As He offers up His life for us in the Eucharistic Sacrifice, let us, with Him, offer our lives as an oblation of love to God the Father for the salvation of all our brothers and sisters. With the Virgin Mary, Mary of the Annunciation venerated as Our Lady of Walsingham on this beloved island, let us be one in heart with the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus. In the Heart of Jesus our hearts will find the courage and strength to remain true to the apostolic faith for the glory of God and for the salvation of England and of all the world.

Heart of Jesus, salvation of those who trust in Thee, have mercy on us.
Our Lady of Walsingham, pray for us.
Saint Joseph, Husband of Mary and Foster-Father of Jesus, pray for us.
Saint Gregory the Great, pray for us.
Saint Augustine, Apostle of England, pray for us.